ON THE USE OF THE "BURDEN STUDY" TO CALCULATE "SAVINGS" OF NEW RAIL REVENUE POLICIES

Four of the means for increasing net revenues of railroads in the 17-state Northeast and Midwest "crisis" region have been suggested as (1) regaining lost traffic, (2) increasing market penetration, (3) increasing rates on existing traffic, and (4) eliminating noncompensatory traffic. These items rely heavily on use of the so-called Burden Study (An Estimation of the Distribution of the Rail Revenue Contribution by Commodity Groups and Type of Rail Car 1969--RRIS 18 047568) in determination of the resulting net revenues. This paper identifies a particular problem of the Burden Study--called the Aggregation Problem--which casts some doubts on the validity of the study's use, at least as it is currently applied.

• Corporate Authors:

  Association Interstate Commerce Comm Practitioner

  1112 ICC Building
  Washington, DC  United States  20423
• Authors:
  • Allen, W B
• Publication Date: 1976-1

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 224-239
• Serial:
  • ICC Practitioners Journal
  • Volume: 43
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: N/A

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Commodities; Costs; Economic analysis; Forecasting; Freight traffic; Profitability; Revenues; Statistics
• Identifier Terms: Conrail
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cost analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Commodity statistics
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Finance; Freight Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00129801
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 10 1976 12:00AM